Times staff report

HAMMOND | A 54-year-old Hammond man died early Friday morning when he was struck by a freight train at Torrence Avenue and Hudson Street.

Randall Roberts, of the 2900 block of 163rd Place, was hit by a train about 3:30 a.m. He was declared dead at the scene from blunt-force trauma, and his death is considered accidental, according to the Lake County coroner's office.

Witnesses told police a gray van appeared to be stalled on the CSX railroad tracks. Roberts was outside the vehicle and reaching into a passenger side window when he and the 1990 GMC van were struck by an eastbound train, witnesses said.

The accident snarled traffic in the area for hours, with the train blocking Calumet Avenue just north of Chicago Avenue. All crossings were cleared by 8 a.m.

Roberts' family said he had a passion for cars.

Roberts, who had six children, is a mechanic but recently was working in construction, said his mother, Maxine Roberts.

"He was mostly into cars," she said.

He was a Hammond native and graduated from the former Hammond Tech, Maxine Roberts said.

The crash occurred just two blocks from the site of a Sept. 1 crash at the Johnson Avenue crossing, where Crystal Bolanos, 11, and Anahi Bolanos, 8, were killed.

Their mother, Edie Bolanos, later died in a Chicago hospital as a result of injuries suffered in the crash that resulted when she tried to beat a freight train through the intersection

Times correspondent Steve Zabroski and staff writers Lauri Harvey Keagle and Vanessa Renderman contributed to this report.